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NIAMS Update

NIAMS Update — March 20, 2014

Spotlight

Education is the foundation of our nation’s biomedical research enterprise. Despite its immeasurable benefits, it can also place a heavy financial burden on recent graduates as they embark on their careers. Since 1988, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has repaid more than $500 million of student loan debt to reduce the financial obstacles that can prevent people from pursuing research careers.

As part of our commitment to ensuring that a diverse and highly trained workforce will sustain the momentum of past generations, this month’s letter features the NIH Loan Repayment Programs.

News

Two announcements have been published that describe the intended development of a Leadership Center and Research Sites for the Accelerating Medicines Partnership’s rheumatoid arthritis and lupus initiative. The resulting network will be developed by the NIH in collaboration with industry partners and patient advocacy groups that will co-fund and actively participate in the scientific direction of the project. The notices have been published to provide potential applicants with enough time to start the process of forming teams, building collaborations and planning responsive applications.

When the President submits his budget to Congress each year, the executive branch agencies provide a document called the Congressional Justification. The Congressional Justification submitted by the NIAMS complements the President's budget request by explaining the Institute's mission, highlighting recent research accomplishments and future initiatives, and providing comparative budget data for the previous, current and upcoming fiscal years. Brief descriptions of the Institute's Extramural and Intramural Research Programs are also included, along with overviews of key research support activities. Additionally, a series of Program Portraits are included that highlight accomplishments and future directions of selected activities funded by the Institute. To view the fiscal year 2015 NIAMS Congressional Justification or access archived documents from previous years, please visit the NIAMS website.

By analyzing the genomes of thousands of people, scientists funded in part by the NIAMS have uncovered several genes associated with an autoimmune disease called Sjögren’s syndrome. The findings, published in the journal Nature Genetics, could help researchers develop new strategies to diagnose and treat the condition.

NIH researchers have identified gene variants that cause a rare syndrome of sporadic fevers, skin rashes and recurring strokes, beginning early in childhood. The team’s discovery coincides with findings by an Israeli research group that identified an overlapping set of variants of the same gene in patients with a similar type of blood vessel inflammation. NIH Director Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., also blogged about the new findings.

Image: Without a key blood vessel enzyme, children are prone to fevers, rash and strokes.

Researchers will now have access to genetic data linked to medical information on a diverse group of more than 78,000 people, enabling investigations into many diseases and conditions. The data, from one of the nation’s largest and most diverse genomics projects—Genetic Epidemiology Research on Aging (GERA)—have just been made available to qualified researchers through the database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP), an online genetics database of the NIH.

Mutations in a gene containing part of the information needed to make an enzyme that provides energy for governing basic cell functions appear to contribute to a severe form of Cushing’s syndrome, according to researchers at the NIH and nine European research institutions.

The NIH Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) has announced the release of its Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2014–2018 (PDF – 3MB). Developed with input from a variety of stakeholders, the plan includes activities to strengthen existing programs and develop new initiatives to advance the prevention research agenda at the NIH and improve public health.

NIH Director’s Blog

On February 28, 2014, the NIH marked Rare Disease Day. In the United States, rare diseases are defined as conditions that affect fewer than 200,000 people. That doesn’t sound like a lot. However, when you consider that more than 6,500 conditions fall into this category, rare diseases are a challenge collectively faced by as many as 25 million Americans.

This may not look like your average Valentine’s Day card, but it’s an image sure to warm the hearts of many doctors and patients. Why? This micrograph, a winner in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology’s 2013 BioArt Competition, shows cells that have been specially engineered to repair the damage done by heart attacks—which strike more than 700,000 Americans every year.

Taking a 30-minute soak in a bath of acid might not sound like a good thing. But it happens to be the latest—and the most shockingly simple—strategy for creating stem cells. The powerful appeal of stem cells for science and medicine lies in the fact that they are both self-renewing and pluripotent, which means they can develop into almost any type of cell in the body. Stem cell technology offers an essentially limitless supply of specialized cells to researchers for exploring the fundamentals of biology, screening for new drugs and developing new ways to regenerate damaged tissue and repair diseased organs.

Just as superheroes often change their forms to save the day, so it seems do red blood cells as they mobilize to heal a wound. Red blood cells usually look like oval, bi-concave discs, but NIH-funded researchers recently discovered that they are actually talented shape-shifters.

Image: Credit: John Weisel, University of Pennsylvania

Other Federal News

Patient groups, researchers and health organizations geared up for Rare Disease Day, a global campaign that aims to raise awareness of the more than 250 million people worldwide who suffer from rare diseases.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Orphan Products Development launched web-based educational resources for patients and industry on rare disease topics. The page debuted on International Rare Disease Day on February 28. Topics include how to interact with FDA.

There's a lot happening these days with regard to the personalization of medicine and how drugs work differently in people, particularly in men versus women. The FDA has a long history in understanding and analyzing these effects.

Researchers developed a 3-D scaffold that guides the development of stem cells into specialized cartilage-producing cells. The approach could allow for the creation of orthopedic implants to replace cartilage, bone and other tissues.

Shivering, like exercise, triggers muscles to secrete a hormone that stimulates energy use in brown fat cells. The findings hint at new ways to alter the body’s energy balance and treat conditions such as obesity.

Read practical health information in NIH News in Health, which is reviewed by the NIH’s medical experts and is based on research conducted either by the NIH’s own scientists or by its grantees at universities and medical schools around the country.

For nearly a century, bacteria-fighting drugs known as antibiotics have helped to control and destroy many of the harmful bacteria that can make us sick. But in recent decades, antibiotics have been losing their punch against some types of bacteria. In fact, certain bacteria are now unbeatable with today’s medicines. Sadly, the way we’ve been using antibiotics is helping to create new drug-resistant ‘superbugs.’

The NIH’s Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series offers weekly lectures every Wednesday at 3 p.m. in Masur Auditorium, Building 10, NIH Campus. Renowned scientists from around the globe present research on a variety of topics. The lectures are Continuing Medical Education-certified, open to the public and available live via webcast.

Upcoming Lectures:

April 3, 2014 (rescheduled from April 9)
Jeannie Lee, Harvard Medical School
‘Epigenetic Regulation by Long Noncoding RNAs’

NIH Science Lectures and Events Available Online
The NIH hosts a number of science seminars and events that are available online through real-time streaming video. You can watch an event at your convenience as an on-demand video or a downloadable podcast. Most events are available to all; a few are broadcast for the NIH or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and are marked as such. See additional details on events.

Change of Grantee Organization (Type 7 Parent)
(PA-14-078)
Letter of Intent Receipt Date: Not applicable
Application Receipt Date: A change of grantee organization request must be made before the anticipated start date at the new organization and preferably several months in advance.

Successor-in-Interest (Type 6 Parent)
(PA-14-079)
Letter of Intent Receipt Date: Not applicable
Application Receipt Date: A successor-in-interest request must be made before the anticipated start date at the new organization and preferably several months in advance.

If you would like to review information about funding opportunities more frequently than our monthly updates allow, see the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts, theprimary source for information about NIH funding opportunities. You can also request a weekly Table of Contents from the NIH Guide.

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Our Mission

The mission of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases is to support research into the causes, treatment, and prevention of arthritis and musculoskeletal and skin diseases; the training of basic and clinical scientists to carry out this research; and the dissemination of information on research progress in these diseases.